Why We Should Have No Grades in School

Grades; who needs grades?People often look at grades as a way to judge how a student is doing. If the student is getting a high mark then he or she is understanding and obtaining the knowledge of the class. On the other hand, if he or she is getting a low mark he or she is not applying his or herself or possibly being flat out lazy. However this is not always the case. Unfortunately the educational system puts an abundant amount of weight on a grade, so it is stressed that the grade received determines how smart the student is. The system is teaching the student that it is not about the knowledge that is retained from the class; instead it is about doing everything possible to achieve the highest possible grade. The quest to just achieve the highest grade possible actually takes away from the quality of learning by not giving the student any reason to retain the knowledge, but instead to only “cram” and get that A. Therefore grades should be abolished because the grades put an obscene amount of stress on the student, encourage the student to take the easiest educational route and take away from the wealth of knowledge a student should be obtaining.

From the first day of school a student is taught that A’s are great, B’s are good, and anything lower is simply unacceptable. This concept of grades is drilled into the student at a young age because a young mind is more willing to please. With the concept that a high mark will please everyone around him or her, the student will strive for nothing but that mark no matter what the cost. A student will sit down with a textbook and cram for a test for hours before the exam. By stuffing as much information as possible into a short amount of time is not only going to cause the student to forget the majority of the information, but also cause a massive amount of stress on the mind. By overloading the mind with a massive amount of information and causing the mind to focus for such long time only puts the student in a...

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